


One Final Embrace

by Mags3502



Series: Writing Prompts [1]
Category: No Fandom
Genre: Angst, F/M, Funeral, I Made Myself Cry, Sad, Sad Ending, Suicide, is that a tag?, no?, okay
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-06
Updated: 2018-01-06
Packaged: 2019-03-01 03:24:52
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,632
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13285962
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mags3502/pseuds/Mags3502
Summary: Prompt: What happens to a young girl after the man she cared most about has left her?





	One Final Embrace

**Author's Note:**

> I made myself cry with this. It's actually kind of shocking. Feedback would be much appreciated and I hope you have a good time reading this (you won't)!

“The funeral’s on Monday, if you plan on going.” She looked up to her mother with glossed over, empty eyes before nodding her head and looking back to the ground. His body had only been found a week ago, hanging in his bedroom from a sturdy rope. How could the funeral be so soon? Everything was so much darker without him there. How could she move on? He promised to stay with her, for better or for worse, in sickness and in health. What made him change his mind?

Her hands came up to her face, wiping away the wet trails her tears had left behind when they fell from her face. She pulled her hands back and looked at them as if they were foreign and, in a way, they were to her. Everything seemed foreign to her. Her hands became cold without him to hold them to his and keep them warm. The tips of her fingers became pink and her nails became short and jagged from the constant abuse her teeth had brought upon them. He was the only one who could get her to stop biting her nails long enough for a decent manicure. 

The pain was just like everyone described it, but stronger. Her hands shook almost constantly and her eyes were never nothing but red, puffy and empty. Her bedroom had been abandoned. She could never go back there, not with the image of him hanging there. It haunted her at night, causing little sleep and many, many nightmares. She felt as if her own life, her soul, was slowly being taken from her the same way you would drain a body of its contents and replace them with sand.

Her hair thinned and became brittle. She could no longer run a brush through it without more coming out along the way. What was once beautiful and loved turned to something dead and fragile. He used to run his hands through her hair and compliment her on how soft it was. Who would complement her now, if he was the only one who ever had?

She could never move past this. This pain would follow her to her grave.

The funeral was dark and sad. She felt so lonely as she looked down at a body that was not his. It was a corpse, filled with strange fluids and preservatives that she didn’t know the names of. Her heart seemed to leap out of her chest and settle itself in his coffin while she gave him one final kiss. He would never kiss her back. He would never hold her in his arms and whisper in her ear. His fingers would never again press into her sides in an attempt to make her laugh. 

Her car followed the coroner’s as they left to the cemetery, where he would be put into the ground before being forgotten by the coroner and priest as they moved on to the next man or woman whose body no longer showed any light. Her cold, chapped hands gripped her steering wheel tight as the cemetery grew closer and closer. 

The burial was the same as any other. The priest gave his spiel, a song was played and his body was lowered six feet into the ground as his loved ones sobbed loudly, for the world to here. She did not cry, though. She had done her crying and sobbing and hiccupping in her home, where no one could see. She did, however, clench her fists in her black dress in rage as he was lowered down. Her hands cramped and her knuckles became white.

She didn’t go home after the funeral like so many others did. Instead, she stopped halfway, at a bridge that she had walked across many times with him. She parked her car and left the keys inside. She wouldn’t be needing them. Her shoes were placed in the back seat with care before she shut the door and walked to the railing on the right side of the bridge. She did nothing but stand there for a bit, reminiscing about old memories of the bridge and their home and the nights he would hold her as if she was all he had. No one stopped or even gave her a second glance. Hardly anyone even came across the bridge. 

She sighed and climbed over the railing, opting to sit on the bars and let them dig into the skin of her thighs for a moment. She wouldn’t be there long enough for them to start really hurting her anyway. The wind blew in her face for a moment, making her feel light. Footsteps approached her from behind as she looked out to the horizon. Whoever it was, she wouldn’t let them stop her.

“You know,” he sighed and leaned his arms on the rail, “You don’t have to do this.” 

She froze and slowly turned her head to the side. There he was. The man who had managed to tear down her whole reality in less than a second. For a moment all she saw was him hanging in there bedroom. He was still wearing his wedding ring. 

“You left me. What else am I supposed to do?” She whispered to him. He gave her a smile that left his eyes looking sorrowful. His hand reached for one of hers but stopped short before returning back to him. 

“If you want me to leave, I will.” He said as he stepped back from the railing.

“No.” Her voice cracked as her bottom lip began to quiver. “Please, stay and talk to me. I don’t want you to go yet.” Her left leg flung over the railing and her right followed until both feet were touching the bare pavement. She stood there for a moment, staring at him and breathing through her mouth as snot slowly filled her nose and tears ran down her cheeks. 

“You’re going to be okay.” He told her.

“Not without you!” She exclaimed. “You’re all I’ve ever needed or wanted. I don’t know how to live without you.”

“You can.” His voice came out shaky as a tear ran down his cheek. “I know you can. You have to.”

“Why?” She asked him. “Why would you leave me here, alone?”

“I don’t have an explanation for you.” He said and looked down. “Are your feet cold.” 

“Forget my damn feet!” She exclaimed. She brought a hand up to cover her mouth and he stepped closer, willing himself not to reach out to her.

“You’ve been chewing your fingernails again.” He smiled and another tear rolled down his cheek as a shaky sigh left him.

“You’re dead.” She said bluntly. “You’re dead, and you’re never going to come back. And I’ll never know why.” He said nothing as he watched her sob in front of him. He could do nothing. “Can I have one last hug?” She asked as another tear dripped down her nose.

“Yeah.” He pulled his lips into a tight line before squeezing his eyes shut and letting tears flow as he realized how much weight that sentence truly held. He opened his arms and stepped forward. She ran to him and attempted to wrap her arms around him only to stop when she realized that she had run right through him. She stood there, still for a moment before a long whine came out from her throat. She turned around and looked at him, noticing that he had begun to fade right before her. She reached her hand out to press it to his chest only for it to pass through him as if he weren’t there. She gasped in and breathed out a shaky breath. There would be no final tender touches between them.

“If I can’t even have this,” She paused and took a few breaths, “then I have nothing. There is nothing.”

“But there is so much more.” He said, weakly trying to convince her. 

“Not without you. How often do I need to say it?” He looked down at the pavement below them. 

“If I can’t stop you,” He began, “then let me come with you.” She nodded and began climbing over the railing once more before stopping and coming back to the road. She looked at him once more, wiped the tears from her cheeks and went in for another hug, desperately clinging to something that wasn’t there. She sobbed as she took handfuls or nothing. Her shoulders shook violently and her head nodded from the powerful sobs being caught in her throat. He stood there, looking past her down the road towards that path he always took home with her before a sob tore his throat as well. “You will be so missed.”

She stepped back and gave him a fleeting glance before climbing over the railing. He followed suit and sat next to her, placing his hand over hers even if she could not feel it. 

“I’m so, so sorry.” He claimed as his shoulders shook along with hers. She closed her eyes and shook her head.

“Ready?” She asked in a high pitched voice. He nodded and she looked down at the shallow, rushing river below them. “One,” she scooted up slightly farther on the rail. “Two,” Her voice stopped shaking as her feet landed on the small amount of road that reached past the metal bars.

“Three.” He said as they both fell forward. The ground came rushing toward them faster than either of them could comprehend. Her body bounced and it landed on a large rock, killing her instantly, while he slowly came to a stop, forced to stare at her dead body the same way she had his. 

At least, maybe now, they could have that one, final embrace.


End file.
